Word: biondi
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...Matt Biondi...
After Mark Spitz won seven gold medals at Munich in 1972, he retired into legendhood -- save for a brief belly flop back into racing last year. Matt Biondi, who took relay gold in Los Angeles in 1984 and seven medals, five gold, in Seoul in 1988, retired too. But he unretired a lot quicker. His passion the past four years has been to create career opportunities for mature swimmers like him -- seeking stipends and commercial sponsorship so post- collegiate athletes can hang on. He succeeded. His six-figure income reflects prize purses and exhibition fees...
...Greg Louganis, slugger Darryl Strawberry) and has polished the skills of legions more who moved to California to train (swimmer Janet Evans, decathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, volleyball player Karch Kiraly). From title-winning ice skaters (Debi Thomas) to record-setting long jumpers (Mike Powell), from Olympic champion swimmers (Matt Biondi) to gold-medal skiers (Bill Johnson), California is the American sports machine. Nearly 30% of the U.S. athletes at the 1988 Summer Olympics were native or transplanted Californians. They won 30 medals -- 32% of the U.S. total...
Swimming nonetheless provided a new world record, as Mike Barrowman of the U.S. improved his own mark in the 200-meter breaststroke, and a great comeback story, as 1988 U.S. Olympian Matt Biondi emerged from semiretirement to win five medals, four gold. That was more excitement than track achieved despite having such U.S. stars as Carl Lewis, Roger Kingdom, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Evelyn Ashford, who, at 33, finished just out of the medals in the 100-meter dash in the twilight of her exceptional career...
...gold came later in the 4x100 medley relay. Starting the first leg, Berkoff blasted off, and Suzuki and Polanski watched. They were never close. Berkoff recorded the fastest backstroke in relay history, 54.56. Teammates Rick Schroeder, Chris Jacobs and Matt Biondi closed out the final three legs...